In The Knife Thrower and Other Stories, the characters seem to be attracted to extremes. For example, when the knife thrower invites volunteers to receive a mark, i.e. to be harmed by him, the members of the audience are keen to participate. Eventually, he even finds someone who is willing to be killed by him--this extreme outcome excites the public, who does not intervene or protest against this final stunt.
Similarly, in “The Dream of the Consortium” and “Paradise Park,” the public is drawn in by buildings that are increasingly constructed to the extreme, including the most extravagant goods for sale and the most extravagant rides respectively. Interestingly, the public is bored when a park section is built that features regular landscapes, but when an extreme amusement park is constructed with the most dangerous rides, the visitors cannot get enough.
In “The Sisterhood of the Night,” the townspeople expect extreme actions to take place at night when the girls meet, such as witchcraft. They also suspect that the girls would kill any member who wants to leave the sisterhood. The public simply cannot accept that the girls meet at night in silence, even when there is no evidence that supports their expectations.
When their needs are not met by the real world, the characters try to escape to enchanted places. For example, in “Clair the Lune,” the narrator disappears into regions of bliss when he meets his female classmates. In “Flying Carpets,” the boy ascents so high into the sky that he loses sight of the world and gets scared of it. When he descends again, he feels joy and relief. Finally, in “Beneath the Cellars of our Town,” the townspeople spend much of their time underground, wandering through the vast network of tunnels. The narrator even explicitly explains that they serve no purpose “except to distract us from the serious conduct of our lives, and to tempt us toward a kind of childish dreaminess.”
The only character who does not want to be extreme is Kaspar Hauser. With his extreme background (he was kept in isolation as a child), he simply wants to be a regular citizen.
